Book Review - Twisted by Marjorie Brody

 

Twisted
Marjorie Brody
Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books (March 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 161194256X
ISBN-13: 978-1611942569
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches

In this thoughtful story we meet Sarah Hausman, a teen who has been traumatized by a rape and thinks she must pretend it didn't happen, and she absolutely can not tell her parents. Then we meet Judith, who is struggling to hang on to a relationship when the man she loves has gone to take care of family business.

As the story progresses, we find that Sarah has much more to hide, and the novel really lives up to the title by twisting the story every which way. Some of the people aren't who we thought they were, and incidents certainly aren't what they first appeared to be. Be ready for some surprises.

I really liked the ending, but to say what I liked would give away too many of those surprises, so I will refrain. On the other hand, I did have a bit of a hard time hanging in to read the whole story. Some of the characters were so unlikeable, and did things that didn't seem to fit, that I almost stopped reading when I was about half-way through the book. I'm glad I didn't put it down, though, because from the middle on, the story picked up, the twists were revealed and I was saying, "Ah, so that's what was going on."

That was also when I really started to enjoy how Marjorie uses craft, and I could see how she won a Pushcart nomination. This is not a novel for light reading and don't expect something that would fit in a genre. That said, I do wish there had been some early hints of what was really going on in the story. I felt like the story took me in one direction, then changed course with no turn signal. That did not bother other readers and reviewers, as comments on Amazon attest, but I found it a bit disconcerting. If hints were there and I missed them, I apologize to Marjorie. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marjorie is an award-winning writer and a retired psychotherapist. She will be my Wednesday's Guest this week, so I do hope you will come back and meet her. I met her at an author event a few months ago, and enjoyed getting to know her.

Book Review - The Year After by Ashley Warner

The Year After
Ashley Warner
File Size: 699 KB
Print Length: 351 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1489557822
Publisher: Ashley Warner (December 9, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00H9T3V3S

 “With unflinching honesty and unsinkable spirit, The Year After offers a rare and intimate portrait of trauma. .... the daily challenges of recovery from rape at the restless age of 24 are artfully interwoven with reflections from early childhood and twenty years beyond in the search for understanding so familiar to those who have wrestled with life-changing upheaval."

That is part of the Amazon book description, and at first I wasn't sure I wanted to read the story since I have been dealing with my own emotional trauma for the past few months, but I was impressed with the very professional query I received from the author. I was also impressed with the fact that she worked her way through the effects of the trauma from being raped and emerged a strong woman. I like to celebrate strong women.

The book, written in a journal style, is full of honesty and raw emotion: The things that those of us dealing with trauma wish we could say, but so many friends and relatives don't want to hear. They love us, so they don't want to be in the pain with us. They want us to be okay.

Traumatic events such as Warner experienced leave a wash of jumbled emotions in their wake, and people who have been victims of rape and assault feel those emotions at painfully deep levels. One of those jumbled emotions that is the hardest to deal with is anger. Anger is a normal part of the grieving process, and those who have been raped are grieving the loss of the life that was before.

Warner is clear about defining that line of demarcation between life before and life after a traumatic experience, and she validates those surges of anger that can leave one screaming and breathless. It is okay, even necessary, to feel those emotions and deal with them. This "before and after" is just as true for those grieving a loss from death. When we have suffered a great loss, we cannot go back to before. We just have to learn how to live after, and insights on how to do that come through strong in the telling of Warner's story, without some of the platitudes so often thrown to a grieving person like life preservers.

I highlighted a number of passages that resonated with me as I was reading, and I'm sure they would be helpful to others who are walking the path of grief. In response to people who ask how she was doing often Warner would say, "I'm hanging in there." Or, "I'm doing okay." She then wrote, "Doing 'okay' meant only that I was getting up each morning and clawing my way through the day without collapsing."

How the author clawed her way through that first year, and beyond, is a beautifully written inspirational story. While parts of it are so painfully hard to read for the brutal honesty and dark emotions, it is a must read for anyone who is trying to find a life after. 
_______________

Ashley Warner is a writer and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Don't be a Victim

The Media in Dallas has all been abuzz over remarks made by Police Chief David Brown to City Council  members.  Those comments were made during a  Public Safety Committee meeting while speaking about a reported 25 percent spike in sexual assaults so far this year compared to the same period last year. He pointed out that a lot of those assaults are connected to alcohol use and date rape.

In putting forth the department's plan to address this increase he said they are considering a public-education campaign urging women to exercise extra caution when going out with someone new, to be careful about drinking too much in those situations or to always have a trusted, sober friend present.

During the meeting a reporter from the Dallas Observer   was doing a live feed to his blog and  reported that the Chief was blaming women for sexual attacks. Later in the week, Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow, came to the Chief's defense saying this idea was no different than public safety campaigns to encourage people to lock their homes and cars and don't leave valuables in cars.

Blow was taken to task by letter writers who said that he was supporting the idea that women are to blame for sexual assaults and rape. Beth Newman, dirctor of Women's and Gender Studies at SMU, wrote, "A public education campaign emphasizing the responsibility of women to protect themselves merely reinforces the idea that a man's taking advantage of an "opportunity" to rape is to be expected."

In response to that letter, another  woman wrote, "No woman drunk or sober ever deserves to be raped, even if she is dancing naked on a tabletop in a room full of convicted serial rapists. However, I would never advise my daughter to allow herself to get drunk while on a date with a man she barely knows."

This controversy has really resonated with me because I was assaulted once. And I was not the least bit offended by Chief Brown's comments. To me, what he was saying was, be careful that you don't make yourself prey. Rapists are looking for every opportunity to take advantage of a vulnerable person. Do what you can to make sure you are not that person. 

That isn't blaming the victim.